Apple special event set for Sept. 1

Steve Jobs' annual music-themed event is coming a little earlier this year

Image: Apple Inc.

Invitations to the press went out Wednesday afternoon for a special Apple (AAPL) event Sept. 1 in San Francisco. The text offered no hint of what might be in store, but there has been plenty of speculation leading up to it. Among the new products and services rumored to be on tap:

• A new iPod touch, possible with a higher-res screen and one or two cameras
• A new Apple TV, priced at $99 and built around iOS and the iTunes store
• A 99-cent TV rental service, subject to the agreement of the TV studios
• A cloud-based iTunes service that makes use of the new data center Apple has been building in North Carolina.

Any or all of this could be wrong, of course. It was only yesterday that Bloomberg Businessweek confidently predicted that the event would take place on Sept. 7.

The text of the invitation:

Please join us for an invitation-only event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco on September 1 at 10:00 a.m. Registration begins at 9:00 a.m. Please arrive early. RSVP to xxxx@apple.com.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]